Edgar Calls For Schools` Report Card

May 11, 1990|By Thomas Hardy and R. Bruce Dold.

Secretary of State Jim Edgar, the Republican candidate for governor, unveiled a wide-ranging plan for improved public education Thursday, including ``performance indicators`` to assess the effectiveness of state spending.

Edgar`s running mate, state Rep. Robert Kustra of Glenview, meanwhile, acknowledged having quietly shifted his stance on abortion to be more in line with Edgar and other top statewide candidates of both major parties who support abortion rights. Kustra had been an abortion opponent.

On education, identified by every candidate for major office as a priority issue, Edgar previewed a speech he is scheduled to make Friday to the Illinois Association of School Administrators.

While reiterating his support for permanently extending part of a state income-tax surcharge for education, Edgar said he plans to call for assurances ``that our taxpayers are getting their money`s worth.``

Each school district should be allowed flexibility to set and meet goals, he said.

``At the same time, if a district is not producing the right results, the state board of education and, if necessary, the governor and General Assembly must be prepared to play a prominent role in bringing about progress,`` Edgar said his speech will tell the educators.

Atty. Gen. Neil Hartigan, Edgar`s Democratic opponent, has said he will not take a position on extending the tax for education until closer to the Nov. 6 election but also has called for what he calls ``accountability`` in spending.

Among the initiatives Edgar is scheduled to outline:

- A $60 million program to make three-day computer technology training available for teachers. The funds would cover the cost of substitute instructors while full-time teachers are in training.

- A four-year pilot program to establish a ``School-Family Network,``

making schools the focal point for streamlining and directing health and social welfare programs for ``at-risk`` children and their families.

- An expanded scholarship program for minority students studying to become teachers. The number of education majors graduating from state schools has declined by 60 percent over the last decade, while black and Hispanic enrollment has risen sharply.

- An intern employment program funded jointly by the state and Illinois-based companies aimed at discouraging the so-called brain drain of top college graduates to jobs in other states.

Edgar contends that the initiatives would require an estimated $70 million annually over the next four years in state education funding.

On the abortion issue, Kustra told lobbyists for the American Jewish Congress in Springfield that he now supports a woman`s right to have an abortion in the first 14 weeks of pregnancy.

``I simply believe in the early weeks of pregnancy it`s difficult if not impossible for anyone, other than the mother and doctor and family, to make a decision,`` Kustra said later. ``What I found in talking to people in my district is that in the very early weeks of pregnancy, people find the role of government to be a difficult one.

``After that, there should be a role for the government, to legislate, restrict or ban, and I do not support public funding for abortions,`` Kustra said.